There With a Rose
by I Create Myself
Summary: Season 3 rewrite: The Doctor and Rose, in the TARDIS. As it should be
1. Things Change

**A/N: I know, I know. I should be working on "Our Forever". But... I've been dying to do my own season 3 AU. So here ya go.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.**

"The Void is open! Ha!" The wind bellowed around them, whipping their hair and clothing towards the Void. Daleks and Cybermen crashed through the large glass windows of Torchwood. Rose's hands gripped the clamp with such ferocity her knuckles turned white.

White and silver and bronze filled their vision as the pepper pots and metal men fell into what many plants consider to be hell. The Doctor looked over at his companion, a smile splitting his face. It's working. They were going to win. Finally, against all odds, they would beat the Daleks. Everything they've taken from him, and he was finally going to beat them.

But the Universe was never that kind.

"**Offline," **the mechanical voice droned. Rose's lever inched back toward it's off position. The flow of Daleks and Cybermen slowed to an alarming pace. It wasn't going to work. His eyes found Rose's as she glanced at the lever. He immediately knew what she was planning.

His eyes begged her to stay where she was, told her they would find some other way.

Hers told him that they had no choice.

Rose pried her fingers away from the clamp and stretched them toward the lever. With a surge of confidence, she lunged at the lever, barely catching it. Her eyes once again found the Doctor's. She was sure the pained expression that had painted itself on his face would be engraved in her memory for the rest of her life, however much longer it would last.

With strength she didn't know she possessed, Rose pushed the lever back into position and once again a mechanical voice bellowed amidst the chaos. "**Online and Locked.**" The wind picked pick again and the tug of Hell at their feet seemed to be more intense than ever before, so intense that Rose's feet picked up off the ground.

"Rose! Hold on!" The Doctor's scream was lost to the wind.

He saw it coming. From the moment her feet swung up into the air, he knew what was coming.

She was slipping. Her hands couldn't hold tight enough. He heard her grunt with effort to keep a tight hold on the lever with what little strength she had left.

It wasn't enough.

She slipped.

She screamed.

So did he.

Then, the most welcome sound filled his ears: dying wind. The Void was closing. The Doctor's head snapped to Rose's falling body. Both of is hearts stopped. She was dangerously close to oblivion.

The void was crumpling on itself as if the hands of the Universe were crumpling a piece of paper.

He feared it wasn't closing fast enough.

"Close! Come on! Close!" The Doctor pleaded.

The Universe obeyed.

The Void closed just in time for Rose to slam against the painfully white wall with a sickening crack as her skull made contacted with the concrete. The Doctor stood motionless; his eyes still locked on is companion. He shook is head to clear it. Within seconds, his aching arms disengaged from the clam and his feet carried him to her in mere seconds. He crouched at her side, hands coming up to rest on her forearms.

"Rose! Rose, are you alright?" She groaned and sat up and a hand wound its way into her own golden hair in an attempt to soothe the dull pain that was gathering there.

"Yeah, yeah. 'm fine, I think." A small, genuine smile graced her lips for the first time since this adventure began. He returned her smile and scooped her into a rib-crushing hug. Rose buried her head into the crook of his neck. One hand wound into his mop of brown hair and the other clutched the collar of his pinstripes. The Doctor placed light kiss in her hair.

"That was close. Too close," the Doctor murmured into her hair. The slight smell of iron filled his nostrils. He pulled back, eyes wide with fear. His fingers quickly slid across her golden locks and pulled back with bloodied fingertips. "Come on. Let's get you back to the TARDIS." Rose nodded. Her hands untangled themselves and one found its way to the white wall. Her face held no emotion as her eyes glued themselves to the wall.

That scared the Doctor more than the entire Dalek/Cybermen invasion force.

Rose Tyler wore her heart on her sleeve. Anger, love, sadness, whatever. The universe always knew what Rose Tyler was feeling, and for her to be emotionless now…

Rose attempted to rise, only to stumble backwards once she was standing. In an instance, the Doctor hooked a hand beneath her knees and hoisted her up bridal style.

"Don't even try it. You're drained and injured." A minute nod was the only indication that she had heard him. Rose's head nuzzled into his chest, the Doctor headed out of the cursed Canary Warf and back to the TARDIS.

"There we are! Good as new." The Doctor held out a hand to Rose, who took it gratefully as she slipped off the examination table.

"Right…" She mumbled. "I'm off to shower. Be back in a tick." Rose made to push past him, but he grabbed her upper arm as she past. She whirled to face him

"It's okay to be sad, Rose." Unnamed emotions flickered in his eyes.

"Wh-what do ya mean, Doctor? I'm fine." A watery smile forced its way on to her face. He sighed and pulled her into an embrace.

"Don't lie to me, Rose. I know you're not." She curled into his chest, her body rebelling against her. A tear leaked onto his pinstripes.

"What am I supposed to do? I didn't even- I didn't think. I just came back. I left them." She whispered. His arms tightened around her.

"I should've made you stay. You need them." Guilt leaked into his voice.

"No! I need _you._" Rose sniffed. "I promised you forever, and that's what you're gonna get. Mum has Pete and Mickey. No she'll have the life she's always wanted, what with all those cars and money." She took a deep breath. "When you sent me back home, ya'know, when the Daleks attacked the Game Station, I didn't know what to do. People needed me, _you _needed me, and I was hundreds of thousand o years away. So I ripped open the TARDIS and came back. Everything worked out.

"Then it got dangerous again and again you tried to send me away, and again I came back and saved your sorry butt." A laughed ripped its way out of the time travelers' throats. "You have to trust that I can make my own choices. Am I going to miss them? No doubt. But it was my choice, and I'll _always_ choose you."

Tears pricked the corners of the Doctor's eyes. "Rose, I-"The words stuck in his throat. He had a gob that could save and/or destroy entire galaxies, but when it came to the pink and yellow girl wrapped in his arms, he never had any words.

Before he knew what he was doing, he pressed a gentle but firm kiss to her lips.

She responded instantly, pressing further into his chest and rhythmically moving her lips against his. His hand cradled her face and hers clutched his pinstripes as they realization of what could have been hit them.

They pulled apart and the Doctor rested his forehead against Rose's. Identical grins adorned their faces.

"There may… be a way to say goodbye."

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	2. Goodbyes and New Beginnings

**I know. This literally took all summer and its total crap and I'm so sorry. I should be updating more often, but enjoy this chapter!**

Two weeks he searched. To weeks he searched for a gap between worlds large enough to project their images across the Void. Two weeks spend floating the Vortex with a single-minded determination that Rose didn't know the Doctor possessed. After searching and searching and searching, he found one.

"Rose! Rose I found it!"

"What?!" Her voice and footsteps echoed down the corridor and floated around the console room as she arrived. "So this will really work? I'll actually get to say goodbye?"

"Will it work? Of course it will work! Rose Tyler, what do you take me for?" the Doctor asked with mock offence.

Rose, apparently, didn't get the joke.

"It _will _work. I just wish there was something more I could do." He soothed as he once again pulled her into a tight hug.

"This is perfect. Thank you." Rose whispered into the lapel of his jacket. He squeezed her tightly and released, directing her to a spot near the console.

"We're in orbit around a supernova. That should give us enough power. Call her. Call your mum. Tell her to follow your voice. "

Rose took a deep breath, steeling her nerves for what she was about to do.

"Mum. Mum."

* * *

"I'm telling you, Pete! I heard her. She was callin' me!" Jackie screeched at her newly remarried husband.

"Jacks…" Said husband placed comforting hand on her shoulders. "I know you miss her. I- I miss her to. Hell, I never got to know her. But we have to accept that she isn't coming back. She _can't._" Jackie pushed Pete's hands off her shoulders and stalked towards the door without a word. Pete could _feel_ the righteous fury burning in her eyes, even without seeing them. He sighed. "Fine. You win. Pack what you need. We'll leave as soon as you're ready."

Like lightning, Jackie was wrapped around him the instant the words left his mouth. "Thank you. Thank you!" She was gone as quick as she had returned, the warm spot she had left in Pete's arms cooling quickly.

Pete scrubbed a hand across his face and cursed his wife's screwed up hormones for the hundredth time that day.

* * *

Jackie's desperate eyes scanned the cold Norwegian beach for any sign of her daughter. Her heart clenched painfully as she spotted Rose. Her feet couldn't carry her across the sand fast enough.

"Where are you?" By some miracle, Jackie was able to speak over the lump quickly forming in her throat.

"In the TARDIS. The Doctor's here too." Said man appeared on the beach.

"You look like a ghost …"

"Oh sorry. Hold on." The Doctor pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his suit jacket's pocket and pointed it at an invisible machine. The pair turned solid and mother rushed to daughter before a voice stopped her. "We're just an image. No touch. Sorry."

"Can'tcha come through properly?"

"No. Two universes would collapse." He told her grimly.

"So? You promised you'd always bring her back to me, Doctor." Jackie practically screamed at him, and he swore that her shrill voice pierced the wall between universes- just for a moment.

"Mum…please." Rose voice was quiet, thick with unshed tears. "It was my choice. Not his. He tried to send me to you, but I came back. I'll always come back." She spared a glance to the Doctor and he intertwined their fingers.

"Two minutes." He warned.

"God! I don't know what to say!" Rose screamed to the heavens. Two minutes left to ever talk to her mother and she was speechless- or maybe she had too much to say, Rose could tell. Thankfully, the Doctor always had _something_ to say.

"You've still got Pete, then? And Mr. Mickey?"

A slow, small smile spread on her face, despite the dire circumstances. "There's four of us now. Me, Pete, Mickey… and the baby."

"Mum… you're not?" Rose covered her mouth with her free hand to stop her trembling lips.

Jackie nodded, thick streams of tears flowing freely. "Three months gone. They'll know about their sister, and her Doctor who protects her." The Doctor nodded a silent agreement. He would _always _protect Rose Tyler, even if it cost him his lives.

"I love you, Mum. I love you so much!"

"I love you too, sweetheart. Never forget that your old mum love you!" And with that the pair faded from the cold, desolate beach, and Jackie Tyler broke down and cried.

* * *

She bit back her tears. She couldn't break down. Not now, not in front of the Doctor, not again. He felt bad enough, she wouldn't add to his never-ending guilt.

"So," she started, a false smile on her face, "where to?"

"Rose…" he pulled her into his chest, his hands roaming over her back. "You'll be sad, you'll miss her. Trying to hold all that in is only gonna make it worse. Please Rose. Don't try to hide thing from me. Not anymore." He pulled away slightly and placed a light kiss to the corner of her mouth. "We're in this together."

The dam broke. Everything she'd felt since they'd first walked into bloody Torchwood ran threw her mind at break-neck speed. Her body convulsed with sobs, and the Doctor tightened his grip. She wept for her family- the dad and little brother or sister she would never know, the mother she would never see again. She wept for the people who died at the hands of monsters how didn't even belong in this world in the first place. She even wept for the Doctor who had lost everyone he'd ever cared about and more. When her tears dried up and her sobs reduced to hiccups, she looked up at him, a true smile on her face for the first time in weeks.

"Thank you, Doctor."

He swept a stray hair from her eyes. "Anytime, Rose."

She scrubbed at her eyes, feeling the mascara marks on her face. "God, I must look like a right mess. I'm gonna have a shower." She pulled away and his hand lingered on her forearm. "I'll be alright." She pecked his cheek, before finally moving away.

The Doctor moved around the console slowly, lost in a million thoughts. Rose would be okay, she just needed time. And a vacation. Oh…he should take her to Oblax III, for nice romantic getaway. He smiled to himself. He could do that now. He could take his Rose on getaways. And not just any getaways, _romantic _getaways. He didn't know where this budding relationship was headed, but he did know one thing. The universe was a better place with Rose Tyler at his side.

He was pulled out of his musings by an off-white mass appeared in the console room. The blob turned to reveal and irate red-headed woman.

"What?!"

"What?!"

* * *

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